A Victory for My Friends with Disabilities!

In light of the victorious stand our U.S. Senators took today in defeating the CRPD Treaty, (Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities), many thoughts went through my mind.  My first thoughts took me back to a young boy named Keith who lived across the street from the house where I grew up in Plantation Florida.  Keith was our mascot, he always sat on the sidelines while we all played kick ball or any fun game in the street.  He would cheer so loud and wave his hands the whole game!  He always had a smile while we played even when we missed a ball, he would cheer us up.  Keith was a Down Syndrome boy, but that didn't matter to any of us kids in the neighborhood; we loved him.  And truly, if anyone messed with Keith, they had us to deal with!

As we grew older into our teenage years my brother and I would help out at a dance hall for those with down syndrome and we loved it.  It is a highlight of my teenage years, I look back with great fondness for these young people were all so special.  Years later when Keith's mom and dad passed away, he went to live with his brother Glenn and his wife.  It was as though years had not passed, Keith was still the same, he had his smile and gave the biggest hug.  I thank God that I had the opportunity to grow up with Keith living across the street, I learned that we are all different, but we are each special in our own way.

Alyssa

Much later on, while living in Wichita, Kansas from 2000 to 2010, God gave another opportunity to touch me with a precious gift from Him and that was Alyssa.  She is the daughter of dear friends of mine, the Bardens.  Alyssa has had challenging disabilities since she was very young and her family has done everything they knew how to help her.  Alyssa was and is a bright and shining star to me, I loved her from the moment I met her.  She could be laughing her head off which made us laugh our heads off and then get mad shortly after, but I loved her, and count it a privilege to have had so many wonderful times with this family who has been such a witness.  Alyssa's family would also come out and stand in front of George Tiller's abortuary, her mom would sidewalk counsel with me.  Looking at Alyssa would always be the stark reality to us that babies with disabilities like Alyssa were routinely killed there.  It made all of us resolved that all children in the womb deserve the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Steve on the left in the wheelchair!

And then there was Steve Mashburn, my dear friend who I had the awesome opportunity to help take care of toward the end of his life.  Steve was in a diving accident when he was fifteen and left a quadriplegic the rest of his life.  Yes, he was angry when this  first happened, but then one day, he yielded his life to Christ and became a servant of Jesus.  Steve even became a pastor, he would go down to New Orleans and preach, he also had such a passion for the unborn children even participating in a rescue during the Summer of Mercy in Wichita.  Steve loved for us to come pick him up and bring him to the abortion mill.  He would sit in his wheel chair and preach at the gates of hell.  He was such a blessing.  His lungs collapsed toward the end and he was bedridden after that, requiring 24/7 care.  But, as long as he could, he would have that pencil in his mouth, punching away at the computer, writing newsletters for Operation Save America, and other news sources.  One of our favorite things to do together when I would come over would be to watch Fox News and Western movies, he loved Gene Autry!  Steve is now with the Lord, he left this earth in a very peaceful way with a very strong legacy left behind.  He touched so many people's lives.

These precious lives are what went through my mind when hearing about the defeat of this dangerous treaty and how much the three of them had made such an imprint on my life!

This treaty was dressed up in a nice package to make the appearance that those with disabilities would benefit, but it certainly couldn't be further from the truth.  According to Rick Santorum, he stated, "Now, that CRPD is defeated, we know that United Nations won’t have oversight of how we care for our special needs kids. This treaty would have given the U.N. oversight of the healthcare and education choices parents with special needs kids make. Had it passed, CRPD would have become the law of the land under the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, and would have trumped state laws, and could have been used as precedent by state and federal judges,” 

The other threat hidden in Article 25 of the treaty would require signatories to provide persons with disabilities free or affordable health care including the area of reproductive health and population-based health programs.  We all know what this means.

This isn't over, it will come back again so we must remain vigilant and fight hard for the rights of those that have disabilities, this of course is what Jesus would want us to do!  Pray everyone, please pray!

The Day Free Speech Died in Winter Park!

As I sat in the Winter Park Commissioner's meeting this past Monday night, I felt history was being made.  I envisioned history books writing about this very night, the day free speech, the right to protest, picket and exercise one's  First Amendment rights were exterminated in favor of peace, harmony and tranquility in one's home and neighborhood. I heard how Winter Park strives to protect it's citizens and provide a peaceful atmosphere all under the guise of stripping away a person's right to stand up and defend civil rights issues.

I thought about how lovely this all sounds to want peace, harmony and tranquility and at the same time thought about the blood that was shed for our freedom.  When there are wicked laws in the land, there can be no peace, when there is an injustice against the rights of another human being there can be no tranquility.  And those of us that know a wicked law is taking place and violating the rights of human beings, we cannot be silent.

The irony of it all is the fact that Winter Park just named their park after Martin Luther King Jr., a man that fought for civil rights for his fellow man.  What I witnessed was the uttermost mockery of what Martin Luther King Jr.  stood for.  I thought back on the marches, the boycotts of buses, everything to bring an end to the injustice of the treatment of black Americans.  I thought, what would this city do if those very same protests and acts of civil disobedience were going on today in Winter Park?  Would they have slapped a 50 foot buffer zone and forbidden any type of peaceful protest against the civil outcry of injustice?

The City Commissioner's of Winter Park have shown the public their real side though, they moved  quick to protect one whom Planned Parenthood of Florida has high hopes for, Jenna Tosh.,the new CEO of Planned Parenthood Orlando.  She is their rising star to bring legitimacy to this business that survives on the bloody massacre of the innocent, 

This is what this whole controversy is over.  Concerned Christian's went in front of Mrs.Tosh's home and prayed, sang and exposed (Ephesians 5:11) what she does for a living.  Within two weeks the City Commissioners had drafted up an Emergency Ordinance outlawing picketing and protesting in their community with a 50 foot buffer zone added in the mix.  The ordinance is broad and far reaching, leaving it open for possible legal challenges.

One wonders if the resident would have been a banker being picketed by Occupy Wall Streeters if the   Commissioners would have jumped to their aid..  I don't think so.  This ordinance is nothing less then one of the most politically correct ordinances I've seen in a long time.

On top of that, one of the City Commissioner's, Sarah Sprinkel, attends the same church  as Jenna Tosh,  the First Congregational Church of Winter Park, so to say there is a conflict of interest here would be a minor understatement.

This past Monday night, at the final voting of the unjust ordinance, one could see the color blue scattered throughout the city hall, this was the color of solidarity for Jenna Tosh.  Her church came in support of her and this ordinance disguised as peace, harmony and tranquility.   While I looked at the blue around the room and listened to her pastor, Reverend Karen Barker-Duncan,  stand up and defend her parishioner and what her parishioner does, my thoughts skipped to the churches that sang a little louder while the Nazi trains drove by with screams of help from the Jewish people being transported to the concentration camps.  But now is a different time, but much the same thing, here in this room were folks in blue singing a little louder while babies are led to the slaughter mercilously at the very place Tosh manages, and they as "church goers" were and are defending her. All the while, the true love of Christ would be to encourage Tosh to leave this business which violates and destroys human beings in the womb, not to support her in this bloodshed.

As it came down to the final vote, Mayor Kenneth Bradley defended the First Amendment and made it very clear he would not be voting on this ordinance, HE WAS THE LONE VOTE, to that he must be commended.

The other four commissioners joined together and all gave a thumbs up for peace, harmony and tranquility in their city; usurping free speech and the First Amendment!  

Most troubling of all was Commissioner Tom McMacken's talk on why he would be voting for the ordinance, "The sanctity of the home is the one place you go to get away from everything, we are a city of homes.  I have sworn to uphold the constitution, but I've also looked everyone of my neighbors in their eyes and said I'm going to do what's in the best interest of Winter Park.  To be quite honest, if that's constitutional or not constitutional I will still do it because these are my neighbors and they deserve protection of any type of intrusion."  Commissioner McMacken made it very clear that he was willing to overlook the constitution in this situation.
  
Yes, this was a night I won't soon forget, the day free speech died in Winter Park.
God help us!

The Revolving Door of Abortion....it has to stop!

While ministering at the abortuary the other day, a young man kept coming in and out of the center.  We tried talking to him, but he was vulgar, rude and unresponsive to our attempt to offer help to him and the young woman he brought to have an abortion.
This went on throughout the morning with several pleas of help and encouragement to be a hero, to be like the men on the titanic that gave up their seats for the women and children.  We encouraged him to protect his child and the woman that sat inside that mill.
Soon after, the young woman came out, I introduced myself and pleaded with her to come and speak with me, which she did!  She approached me with tears in her eyes, with brokeness and a yearning for help.  I began to talk with her letting her know that we were there to help her, I asked, "Are you here for an abortion?"  With eyes that could pierce a heart, she said, "I've already had it, I'm here for a check-up."  Her face fell and I said, "I know how you feel, not good, right?"  She responded quickly with a yes and said, this is my seventh abortion."  I then told her that when I was younger, I was like her and had multiple abortions.  I looked in her eyes and said, "It's got to stop, doesn't it?"  With tears, she quickly said yes!

I explained to her why we as women that have our first abortion end up entering into a revolving door of abortion....a  piece of us dies along with our child, we know it deep down inside.  We sometimes don't realize it, but we just don't care anymore.  Thus, we don't care about ourselves or anyone else, and in the end, little victims of abortion, the little baby boys and girls.
I shared with her my experience with abortion, the years of shame, guilt, regret, pain, agony, not caring about myself or anyone else and not knowing why.  But I also shared how I had come to a place of repentance and confessing my sin of abortion and my faith in Christ, and that was the reason I was alive today!  I said, "this you can do!"
This young woman was also a victim of domestic physical abuse, which we could understand clearly with the way her husband treated us.  We were able to give her information on where to go for her safety and encouraged her to start a new life TODAY!  I encouraged her to go through post abortion counseling and directed her to a center to get the help she needed.
If we as a people do not think that the women of America are not having multiple abortions like women in Russia, we are sadly mistaken.  Girls at 12 are coming for their first abortions and by the time they are twenty, if there is no intervention, that young woman has easily had up to ten abortions. This is common, COMMON!  Abortion has become birth control, and a haven for sex traffickers, child abusers and men that physically abuse women.
Truly, I pray for the day that the little child in the womb will have full protection, with their personhood restored.  I pray for the day that us women do not have the right to choose who lives and who dies.  I pray that this holocaust of abortion will end as the holocaust of the Jewish people ended.  
This is my prayer oh Lord!

Sometimes all it takes is a picture to awaken us out of our slumber!

By now many of you have seen the picture that John Barros posted recently of the young woman who came to Orlando Women's Center here in Orlando to have her 20 week old twin baby girls killed.  Since then the picture has gone viral with many people blogging and facebooking about this tragedy.

Unfortunately, there are some though, even fellow sidewalk counselors, that think John was wrong in taking the picture and have condemned him for doing so.  I felt I needed to chime in on this because I believe this very thing is why abortion continues to go on after almost 40 years.  I may raise some eyebrows here, but I feel very strongly about this.

First of all, John is one of the very faithful sidewalk counselors in Orlando, along with Heather who was with him on this dreadful day.  Those two reached out to this woman and pleaded with her, offering this young mother the help she really needed.  Many comments I have read suggested what she needed was to sit down somewhere and receive counseling, not have her picture posted publicly.  But if any think that John and Heather didn't try to get her to leave and go somewhere that offers real help they are sadly mistaken.  This woman proudly posed for John to take this picture, she had no problem with him taking it.  She also refused the help that was offered to her, she just didn't want "girls!" 

It seems though, that there is alot of criticism of the picture being posted instead of the real horror of what those babies went through eventually leading to their death. They were executed for their gender.  This woman went in and paid someone to kill her baby girls.  That is what is so terribly wrong.  I thank God John and Heather were there reaching out as they do, and I am glad this picture went viral even though this is not uncommon.  Sometimes it takes pictures like this to awaken the sleeping church and world.  It took pictures of the dead Jewish bodies piled, to really understand the atrocities of Hitler.  It took the picture of the little Vietnamese girl on the front cover of the Life magazine for everyone to be outraged.  It has taken pictures of piles of dead bodies to expose dictators involved in genocide.  

We have to remember that this not about abortion, these are crimes against humanity, this is a civil rights issue, a segment of our society that has lost their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  If we do not see it that way, we are going to be more upset with the picture then the actual tragedy and abortion will continue on another 40 or more years.  These babies are human beings and need to be protected and have their personhood restored!

In the meantime, we rescue those unjustly sentenced to death (Provers 24:11-12), speak up for those who have no voice (Proverbs 31:8), and have nothing to do with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather expose them (Ephesians 5:11).

Another Dark Day in History!

This past week upon anticipation of the Supreme Court decision of Obamcare coming down, I joined other Christians around this nation crying out to God almighty to have mercy on this land.  I have prayed and prayed for a favorable outcome of overhauling this whole "Affordable Healthcare Act," which strips away our very freedoms and liberties.  This act which would force us to purchase something we don't want, violate our deeply held beliefs and fund abortion coverage and encroach on states rights.

But this morning, I woke up with such a fervor in my heart, I was troubled and overwhelmed  with concern for the country I love so deeply, at the same time knowing that God has all things in HIS hands.  

2012 Supreme Court Justices

In my heart I felt as though it would go the way it went, for when I heard the news that came down upholding Obamacare constitutional as a tax with a 5-4 split decision, I was not surprised.  Saddened, dismayed, fearful for our country, yes, but no surprise. 

This landmark decision which was handed down today, June 28, 2012 has the potential to tear away the very fabric of our nation if not repealed.

1973 Supreme Court Justices

Amazing that almost 40 years ago another dark day in history occurred, January 22,1973, which stripped away personhood from human beings developing in the womb.  The effects of this decision have been devastating to the over 50 million baby boys and girls that have lost their lives through abortion.  The absolute lack of respect for life is rampant in our nation.  This landmark Supreme Court decision, Roe vs. Wade was taunted as an incredible victory for women, and not only has it been the opposite, it is destroying this country.


Although I am incredibly upset about how this turned out today, my hope and trust is in the Lord God Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth.   He will I continue to look toward and continue on, no matter what.  With Him all things are possible!  I will pray along with so many other believers that Obamacare will be repealed and that God will raise up many more men and women to be true mouthpieces for Him, unashamed of His precepts and commands, this is my prayer.  

"It's her age!"

Lydia, me and Deanna the day of "the age!"

While my daughter Lydia and myself stood on the side of the building of AWHC abortion mill speaking to the women sitting in the waiting room for their abortions, a car drove past and stopped to speak with us.  We offered the young man a pamphlet and began to speak with him.  He had brought his sister and you could see the sadness and torment in his eyes.  He was very troubled and I believe glad to speak to someone about this situation.  I asked him why she felt compelled to have an abortion, to which he responded, "It's her age."  I asked how old she was and he told me she was 40 years old.  My daughter who is now fourteen years old was standing right by my side listening, I turned and looked at her and pointed, and said to him, "This is my daughter, I had her at 42, do you think she was worthy of death?"  At that his mouth dropped and he didn't know what to say.  I told him she was one of the biggest blessings God has given me, and I thank him everyday for her.
I then asked him if he was a Christian and if they had grown up in the church.  He responded quickly with a yes.  I said to him, "Then you know how God feels about the shedding of innocent blood, please tell your sister about my daughter; the baby in her womb is also a blessing, no matter what, she just has to trust Him."
He went inside, but I never found out if he was able to convince her to come out.  So sad that so many babies are killed because of "the age."
I look at my daughter and I am so very thankful to God that HE blessed me with her.  Her smile is contagious and she is always there helping and offering a kind word.
Thank you Lord for giving me Lydia at 42, what a wonderful way to say you love me!

He Hates.....

This is my first post on my new blog!!!  Woohoo!  So why do I feel so compelled to write something so heavy?  Mainly because what happened yesterday was somewhat of a first for me and I drove home in a slight shock!
My daughter Lydia and me went to the All Women's Health Center (abortion center), they were not performing abortions so that was a very pleasant surprise!  Toward the time that we were getting ready to go we noticed a car drive in and a young couple got out of the car.  Of course, as usual, we offered information and help, but the young woman walked through the door while the young man looked at us and decided to come and talk.  He began to explain that they were there because she was having a miscarriage, and that they had been to the hospital.  I asked him why they would leave the hospital and come to an abortion clinic.  I looked at him and said, "I can't imagine the hospital down the street kicking you out and sending you here."  That's when he looked at me and said, "It is our choice and a legal right!" (I knew at that point, there really was not a miscarriage on hand), I responded by asking him if he thought it was right to beat slaves and kill them.  He said with very cold eyes, "Yes!"  I then asked if it was right to kill the Jews, and he again looked at me with those cold eyes, "Yes!  And he also added, "Blacks too!"  I asked him how he got so cold, what had happened.  He told me nothing had happened, but I said, "something had to have happened for you to get so cold-hearted."  At that, the young woman walked out telling him they had more important things to do.  He went inside with her, but they were out shortly after.
As they pulled out of the parking lot, he opened up the window and yelled out, "kill the Blacks, kill the Jews!
My daughter and I stood there in shock at the absolute hatred we had just witnessed. It is not surprising though, that in a land that allows absolute torture and murder to occur on the youngest in our nation on a daily basis, that this would start happening.
I believe because of the bloodshed caused by abortion, we are seeing the true ramifications coming forth.  I pray that I will see this end!